• To hear the full potential of the SAMSON, we strongly encourage mounting each component to its shelf with our brass footers. Using Micropoint Heavyfeet or Triplepoints to couple your components to the maple will nearly double the sonic improvement you get with the SAMSON.

• Audiophiles seeking the ultimate in performance may want to consider adding a 2" or 4" thick Finished Maple Platform on Isoblocks under key components. Add-on platforms with Isoblocks help isolate each component from vibrations generated by gear on the other shelves. The sonic improvement is especially remarkable under turntables and tubed equipment.

• Users with turntables may want to consider ordering the 4" option for the top shelf; the improvement over the 2" shelf is highly audible (ditto with first rate CD players). On the other hand, adding a 4" maple platform with IsoBlocks onto a 2" shelf sounds even better than a 4" shelf alone--but it costs you an extra 4" in height.

• Those seeking the absolute ultimate in sound quality will want to order the SAMSON with all 4" shelves plus a 4" maple platform on every shelf. This is simply the best-sounding equipment rack in the world, bar none. We have a sizable number of customers who have ordered this no-hold-barred configuration--and who report that installing the second layer of maple platforms onto the 4" shelves turned an already superb sounding rack into a breathtaking one.

• Every SAMSON shelf is hand-planed from rough-cut 2-1/2" and 4-1/2" maple to remove saw marks and surface imperfections. We aim for a true 2" or 4" thickness--as opposed to the commercial lumber practice of undersizing. But, because of variations in the rough-cut timber, the exact thickness may vary by up to 3/16".

Design & Performance

In order to make better sounding CDs, we have been experimenting for 15 years with better ways of mounting audio equipment. Our experiments have shown:

• Most crucial is to provide an absolutely rigid, resonance free path for vibrational energy to flow out of the equipment into the shelf and down through the supporting uprights into floor. Any plastic, rubber or other damping material introduced for "isolation" into the path from the shelf to the floor induces muddy bass with smeared mids and highs.

• Wood shelves sound much better than metal, granite or glass. They also sound better than Corian, graphite/carbon fiber composite or damped plastic composites. Among the wood alternatives, the worst is particleboard, then MDF and plywood.

• The best of the available woods is maple. Air-dried maple is audibly better than kiln-dried (all lumber yard and butcher block maple is kiln-dried). The normal audio rack shelf thickness of ¾" to 1" is inadequately rigid.

• Uprights for supporting shelves must be solid, not hollow. Damping the very audible resonances of hollow metal supports with sand or lead fill introduces new problems: notably both dynamics and ambience are deadened and sustained notes are truncated.

• Uprights must be much more rigid than needed for load-bearing alone. To transfer vibrational energy cleanly into the floor, uprights must be terminated with massive conepoints, preferably brass.

• The overall rack structure must be unshakably rigid and stiff. Most importantly, there must be absolutely no side-sway (nor fore-and-aft sway). This is a weak point for most audio racks.

The SAMSON addresses these crucial design issues quite simply:

• Shelves are 2" air-dried maple (4" is available as an option). Two inch is approximately 15 times as stiff as the ¾" veneered MDF standard on most audiophile racks.

• Shelves are locked to the steel uprights by being captured with crushing force between two massive threaded brass cylinders at each corner. This yields a totally rigid vibration path and zero measurable side sway.

For order status and tracking please click here to log-in to your account. Then select the "View Your Order History" link, choose an order number, and scroll down to the "Tracking Information" field. For technical questions about our products and system upgrade advice, please email info@mapleshadestore.com or call (410)867-7543.